LOS ANGELES—It took 13-year-old Fatima Avelica exactly six hours and 48 minutes to run all 26.2 miles of the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday.
She didn’t struggle until mile 18. She says what got her through to the finish line was picturing her dad cheering her on and yelling, “You can do it!”
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Fatima had trained with her dad, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, who often didn’t get to bed until 3 AM after working a restaurant night shift, but still dutifully got up at 5 AM to drive to the beach and ride his bike alongside Fatima and her sister as they trained.
“The training was fun because my dad was always there motivating us,” Fatima told me ahead of the marathon as we sat in a lobby by the main entrance at her high school.
That ended on Feb. 28, when Romulo was arrested by immigration agents moments after he dropped off Fatima’s younger sister at school.
Fatima’s cries were heard around the world as she recorded the incident on her cellphone. Four days later, she and her sister went on a 22-mile practice run to prepare for the marathon—without their dad. They almost quit the marathon, but their father called daily from the immigration detention center and convinced them to continue training.
